By Lady Warrior – February 23, 2021

On February 16th, 2021, schools reopened for students to go back two times a week for a little over 3 hours. Students prepared for the opening for a whole week by watching videos, making pledges, learning consequences, and how to walk down a hallway correctly. The first week back, you barely got any time to learn because they played the same videos again for all of our periods and then taking tests on it. 

When we enter the school, we have to bring signed slips saying we haven’t got any symptoms and haven’t been in contact with anyone. When we turn it in, they give you a colored car that you have to wear on a lanyard for the rest of the day. It helps them to know who got screened. We have to walk single file directly to class, and people are watching the halls to make sure we follow through. 

The lessons are the same as if you were on zoom, so it’s equal for the people who are still at home. Teachers have a hard time because you have to take care of the people in the class and the people at home zooming into the class. Most of the teacher’s attention is to the kids zooming into the class, and at that point, it’s almost better to stay at home. I know a few kids have to sit in a class by themselves and zoom in to their teacher in a different room.  

Sports are a different field than school as well. The indoor sports are getting the end of the stick as well. Basketball isn’t doing much; I wouldn’t even call it basketball. You screen in, like school in school, and you have to grab a personal ball. We do sprints, dribbles, layups, and then we have to go to a hoop by ourselves, and we can’t touch each other or someone else’s ball. The only defining trait left in basketball is the ball. 

The teachers are trying to make it easy, and so are the other workers in the school, but the only way to make it better is to rip the bandaid off and go back to normal; 5 days a week, 7 hours a day, and all the kids back. Then bring back sports in full.